The Federal Government has indicated that it may recover and liquidate the assets of Dana Air to compensate passengers and travel agents whose funds remain trapped following the suspension of the airline’s operations.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, announced the move on Tuesday during the Ministry’s fourth-quarter stakeholders’ engagement in Abuja. The meeting focused on enhancing governance and improving service delivery under the theme, “Leveraging Public Feedback to Drive Excellence in Aviation Services.”
Keyamo stated that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) would be directed to investigate why Dana Air has yet to refund customers, stressing that the government is prepared to explore firm measures to ensure affected Nigerians are repaid.
According to him, the decision to suspend the airline was prompted by serious safety concerns, which made regulatory intervention unavoidable.
“For Dana, the problem is that it was a choice between safety and disaster. So we didn’t take the commercial thing as priority. The priority was safety, and we all looked at the damning reports on the table,” he said.
Keyamo added that the safety issues uncovered were grave enough that continued operations could have resulted in tragedies.
“It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, look, these are the reports we are seeing—about safety records and lack of standards that put the lives of Nigerians at risk. If they continued flying, I don’t know whether most of us would be here. Many could have been victims of one of those flights. God forbid.”
The minister also revealed that he has instructed the Director-General of NCAA, Chris Najomo, to identify mechanisms for recovering and disbursing refunds owed to both passengers and travel agents.
“I have asked Najomo to dig deep to find out how those passengers and agents will be refunded,” Keyamo stated.
He noted that individuals or entities associated with Dana Air would not be allowed to re-enter the aviation sector under any guise—whether through registering a new Air Operator Certificate (AOC) or participating in any aviation business—until outstanding debts are cleared.
Keyamo further disclosed that the government is considering selling the airline’s assets to settle the liabilities.
“We should look at their assets. There are assets that are still available. Let them sell their assets. Let’s cannibalize their revenue and pay people. Let’s find a way to go after their assets and get money to pay Nigerians who are owed,” he said, adding that the NCAA must ensure the airline does not evade accountability.
